Ribollita Recipe

Here is a great recipe for Ribollita (Italian bread soup). This soup is delicious, nutritious, and the ingredients are all very affordable. Give it a try and I think you’ll find yourself being excited about having stale bread around the house.
ribollita2
Ingredients:
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 Yellow or white onion
2 Carrots
1 stick celery
2 cloves garlic
pinch fennel seeds
pinch chili
pinch oregano
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 small bunch of chopped kale
2 14oz cans cannellini beans
2 handfuls stale bread
5-7 cups water
Salt and Pepper to taste

Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese

Finely chop your onions, celery, carrots, and the stalks of your kale
Saute these in olive oil over very low heat for 10 to 20 minutes. Be sure not to brown the vegetables. If you want to impress your significant other, tell them the step is called soffritto. It means slowly frying the vegetables and will give you a great base for your soup.

Once you have finished your soffritto, add your fennel, chili, oregano, and canned tomatoes. Gently simmer for a few minutes. Stir in your chopped kale and cannellini beans.

Tear up your bread and moisten with some hot water. Add it to your soup with the rest of the water. Adjust the consistency as desired. The soup is meant to be hearty, silky, and thick. Continue to gently simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with a splash of olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper.
This is a great soup to fuel your next outdoor adventure.

Tips For a Successful Boulder Mountain Tour

8487591848_d9cefd9b57_zby Sam Young

With only a few weeks to go before your big race,you have logged hundreds of hours of interval training and thousands of kilometers of double poling and ski specific strength, right? OK well maybe not, but there are still a few things you can do to ensure that you have a great Boulder Tour(check out the Boulder Tour Map: here ) or other ski marathon.

Follow the tips below to prepare your mind, body, and equipment for a personal best race experience.

1. Take it easy the week before the race. Keep the volume of your training low but include some short harder sessions.

Here is a sample schedule

Monday: Rest or Easy ski 1 hour

Tuesday:15-30 min of intervals or harder skiing.

Wed: Easy Distance 1hr followed by a good stretching or foam roller session.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 1 hr easy with pickups 5 x 15-20 seconds.

Saturday: Race

Make sure on race day you feel rested and excited to push yourself.

2. Get plenty of sleep the week before the race. Try for the typical eight hours a night, but if you can get more do it. Getting plenty of sleep in the week leading up to race ensures that if you are excited or nervous the night before the race you will still be well rested for a good performance on race day.

3. Focus on getting lots of high quality nutrients in your diet. Fruit and veggies are a great choice here but as you get close to race day keep your fiber intake in check.   You don’t want your stomach to be working any harder than necessary. For dinner try a protein (chicken, fish, steak) with potatoes or rice and some steamed veggies. By eating a reasonable amount of carbohydrate a few days before the race, your glycogen stores will be topped off to fuel a successful performance on Saturday.

4. Don’t waste a lot of mental energy worrying about which wax to use or if your poles are light enough. Get a good wax recommendation and go with it, your local shop will probably me more than happy to give you a suggestion.  They may have even had wax techs out testing on the course the week before the race.  Make sure you have ski clothing to match the temperature on race day. Many races have been won on less than perfect skis. People have had top 20 finishes in the Boulder skiing with no poles, yes I said no poles.

5. During the race carry a water bottle of your favorite electrolyte/sport drink and set a timer on watch to go off every 15 to 20 minutes. This will go a long ways to making sure you are hydrated and fueled up for your entire race.

6. Relax and Have Fun! You will ski faster if you are relaxed and focused on staying positive. Remember that the fate of the entire free world does not depend on your race result. There are so many benefits to doing a ski marathon, I can’t even list them all. Give yourself a pat on the back and have a great race!

Backcountry Run

The Backcountry Run is one of the premier trail running races in the country.
Explore this interactive map by using the +/- buttons to zoom in and out or click and drag to pan around. Feel free to leave comments about the map or the race below.
[map style=”width: auto; height:430px; margin:20px 0px 20px 0px; border: 1px solid black;” z=13 kml=”http://trailweb.net/kml/BckCntryRun.kmz”]

Short Course Profile:
Short Course Profile
Elevation in ft. Distance in miles

A .gpx file of the short course is available to download by right clicking this link[urldisplaymode=nomap] and saving it as a .gpx file. You can upload the .gpx file into your favorite GPS device.

If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can view the short course in Google Earth by clicking this link[urldisplaymode=nomap].

Long Course Profile:
Long Course Profile
Elevation in ft. Distance in miles

A .gpx file of the long course is available to download by right clicking this link[urldisplaymode=nomap] and saving it as a .gpx file. You can upload the .gpx file into your favorite GPS device.

If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can view the long course in Google Earth by clicking this link[urldisplaymode=nomap].

Visit the Elephant’s Perch website for more information.

Castle Rock Fire

The Castle Rock Fire was a large forest fire that threatened the Wood River Valley in the Summer of 2007. Explore the Interactive map below that shows the perimeter of this powerful natural event.
[xmlgm {http://trailweb.net/kml/CstlRckFire.kmz}
maptype=G_PHYSICAL_MAP;
gpxview=all;align=left;
width=680;height=430;
maptypecontrol=hide;
mapnormal=hide;
maphybrid=hide;
mapsat=hide;
mapphysical=show;
mapearth=show;
maxlat=43.765503;
maxlon=-114.335163;
minlat=43.563468;
minlon=-114.579236]

Boulder Mountain Tour

The Boulder Tour is one of Sun Valley’s more popular Winter events. Explore this interactive map by using the +/- buttons to zoom in and out or click and drag to pan around. Feel free to leave comments about the map or the race below.
[xmlgm {http://trailweb.net/kml/bmt.kmz}
maptype=G_PHYSICAL_MAP;
gpxview=all;align=left;
width=680;height=430;
maptypecontrol=hide;
mapnormal=hide;
maphybrid=hide;
mapsat=hide;
mapphysical=show;
mapearth=show;
maxlat=43.914691;
maxlon=-114.376324;
minlat=43.759494;
minlon=-114.685496]
Visit the official Boulder Tour website for more information.